2022 FIFA World Cup Underdogs

In every competition, there are favourites and underdogs, there is no exception in this edition of the FIFA World Cup.

Underdogs in most cases don’t need motivation and have no pressure compared to the favourites, competing with the best in the world is a motivation on its own. In this piece, we look at the national teams in the World Cup that are regarded as underdogs.

Here is the list below:

1 Qatar

Qatar football national team has never qualified for any FIFA World Cup since their independence in 1971. the national side has always fallen short in the final stage of World Cup qualifiers, and this time around they will participate as hosts.

2 Ecuador

Even though Ecuador have appeared three times already, they are far from being the favourates to win the tournament, their first appearance was in 2002 where they exited in the first round, but came back in 2006 with much improvement that saw them advancing in the last 16 before making their exit. Their last appearance was in 2014, also they were knocked out in the first round.

3 Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia appeared five times in the FIFA World Cup, They made their first appearance back in 1994, the only time they advanced into the round of 16. They suffered a 5-0 defeat in their opening game against Russia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, only won one game, and finished third in group A.

4 Serbia

Serbia has made two appearances in the FIFA World Cup thus far, in 2010 and 2018, on both occasions they exited in the first round of the competition. Even though they won their first game against Costa Rica, they lost their remaining games to Brazil and Switzerland.

5 Costa Rica

Costa Rica finished in fourth place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup’s group E, making them the only team with no victory in group E considering that they went all the way into the Quarter Finals in 2014. They have made five FIFA World Cup appearances since 1990, the 2014 World Cup edition in Brazil being their best-ever achievement in the competition.

Siphamandla Lindwa

Siphamandla Lindwa is a sports writer and a publisher for Bet Central at Bet.co.za. He obtained a B-Tech in Sports Management from Tshwane University of Technology. When not writing sports content, Sipha scouts talent and networks for his future Sports Management agency.